10 Th^ Colorado Experiment Station. 
tection during the winter, with canes eight or ten joints in length. 
But when we consider that a cane must be trained in a horizontal 
position to give all buds on the cane an equal chance, it is not so 
easy to work out a system of long training for grapes that need win¬ 
ter protection. About the only practical system is to start the new 
canes from as near the ground as possible and train them on a 
low trellis. In pruning native grapes 
it is a common practice to leave arms 
of old wood, train them in an up¬ 
right position, and train the canes 
that spring from these arms along a 
wire. The plan of starting new 
canes each year from as near the 
ground as possible also works well 
if the canes are not trained too up¬ 
right. Tied up to a stake or a wire 
trellis in an upright position, the 
lower buds do not get a fair chance 
with the rest, and shoots from the 
spurs left for the production of 
fruiting-wood fail to develop into 
strong canes. Fig 2 shows a vine 
pruned for this system of training; 
notice the spurs near the ground 
that are supposed to grow wood for 
another year. Some such system 
of training as this would no doubt 
prove very satisfactory for vinifera 
grapes in Colorado. If this system 
is adopted one must be sure and 
leave these short spurs and train 
the canes that are to produce the 
fruit-bearing shoots in as near a hori¬ 
zontal position as possible; in other 
words, use a low trellis, possibly a 
single wire. This gives the buds on 
the spurs plenty of light and all buds an equal chance. It has been 
demonstrated that the Sultanina and Alexandria will do well when 
pruned and trained in this manner. 
Summer Pruning .—It is a common practice to summer prune 
vinifera grapes. In the first place one should go over the vines in 
the early spring and remove all suckers starting from below the 
ground and watersprouts arising from large arms. These shoots 
are generally sterile, take the strength of the vine and are poor 
fruiting canes if left for that purpose. One should go over the 
COiO exfn STA. 
Fig-. 2. 
lyOng Pruning of vinifera grape vines 
